Back to the Future

So I'm back on the calendar thing again.  This time it's a late Christmas present for mum who needed a what's-the-date-today kind of calendar rather than one to write events on.  It needed to be large print too.

Each month is going to be a different design - partly so that I can play with different techniques but also to keep it interesting!  January was made on a piece of dyed copy paper, stamped and then the text added.  The backing is handmade paper.  It acquired a few buttons and a flower before it was finally hung up but I don't have a decent photo yet...

Garden Visitors

It's about time I added another post - it's been a busy year so far but I've had time to stop and capture a couple of our garden visitors:

This is our three-legged fox who often stops in the garden - not a tame one but he's not camera-shy.

I don't ever remember seeing a dragonfly as big as this in the garden before - a real beauty.  We do have a pond somewhere amongst the overgrown trees - no wonder it had to sit and rest in its search for it.
A quick Google search says it's a male Southern Hawker...

Time Flies...

...and I bet you thought I wasn't coming back?  I wondered too.

When the end of January arrived I suddenly realised that I was about to run out of calendar - so decided to have a go at making my own.  One month done so far:

As it was a bit of an experiment with just ink pads, rubber stamps and pen, I kept it simple - now I know that it'll fit nicely on an A4 sheet I'll add a bit more to it next month - which, knowing me, I'll be doing late on 29th Feb....

Back on the Chain Gang

Well, chainmaille actually... have finally picked up the pliers again.

This pair made from sterling silver rings with purple (more than the photo shows) anodized aluminium.  For a very purple lady!

Oh, OK...

... I haven't really been asleep all this time - but I have to admit that hibernation does sound very appealing.

Actually, I've been quite busy since my last real post - visited a lot of talented artists during Artweeks, focusing my visits this year on glass artists; I've dusted off my lace pillow in preparation for a workshop I'm teaching in October; had my first go at lampworking at the Flame Off in Towcester and tried enamelling for the first time at Art in Action.

I've joined the Oxford Glass Artists group; been to France on holiday; got very wet on the water rides at Legoland and have made a book from beer mats.

Oh, have slept a bit too.....

Sshhh....

... I'm sleeping.

Experiments II

This week I have mostly been experimenting with inchies.  Never heard of them?  They're one inch square pieces of 'art' (I don't consider myself an artist so loath to call anything I do art!).  They're usually card-based but can be made out of anything - fabric, metal, wood etc.  So far I've done a few backgrounds - a few being in excess of 50.... As they're small they're quick to do and this first batch I've done with ink stamps on white card.

Next, I added some printed images, text and music to the card before inking: 

The next step is to finish these off with some more images, paint, ink or whatever - more experimenting!